Disco 3 (LR3) HDC warning light, noise and engine will not turn over.

Hello,
I hope that someone maybe able to offer a little advice. The car in question is a 2004 auto LR3 with 12000 miles on it. The car belongs to my sister in law and is based in the Dorgogne in France. Three months ago she was driving the car and there was a hell of a lot of noise from under the car, she says that it's like something trapped in a propeller. She stopped and tried to start it, it wouldn't turn over just this noise again. The only warning light on is the HDC. It was towed into her local garage in Gourdon (where she's taken all their cars for the last 25 years) who only looked at it yesterday 3 months after it got there. Their diagnosis is its "BLOCKED" they recon engine out, un block it what ever that means etc. But they can't do it cos they don't really know what's up but think it's going to be a main agent job at, their estimate, of €15,000 that's almost £11.000.
Any ideas, do I get it back to the UK for her, got to be less than £11K......too good a car to scrap.

So please ladies and gentlemen any input ?
Thank you in advance.

Possibly the crank has had an oilway blocked by a rotating shell and seized.

Trailer it back to the UK, but it won't be cheap, you'd need a regrind on the crank, new shells minimum..

Might be something else of course....

Peter

Thank you Peter, been pricing up engine work at my local independent near Warminster. Far cheaper than France though I don't think my 300 would be adequate to trailer it back need something else.

Graham